A New Beginning
Genelle
I feel like no one sees me, I’m just this invisible girl in the wolf society. My pack is Sacred Moon in the North & I am just a maid for the palace, I cook & clean all day and return home to help my mother take care of my siblings.
I’m almost 18 now & will soon be free to go see the world and pursue my own dreams, this place has no future for me, my mother was lost after my father died and drinks herself away, her mate is gone but her children are here and I raise them more than she does, I wish to save them from seeing her like this but I need to have my own life once I’m 18.
Every day is the same, but soon I’ll have enough saved up to go to the southern packs and explore the islands.
I get ready to sleep & imagine running through far away in my wolf form, dashing through forests and places I’ve never been.
What will my future hold? I wonder as I slowly drift off to sleep.
Keana (Genelle’s mom.)
It’s almost time for Genelle to be home, where is she? I sigh annoyingly.
Nowadays, I have no patience for her being late or to take care of my other children.
I wish I could run away from them, seeing them only reminds me of my lost mate, Mishka.
I pour another drink and go lie down in my bed, an all too familiar pattern since he died.
It’s strong and bitter but it dulls the pain enough for me to tolerate these children.
Finally I hear the door open and shout at her from the room “Check on your siblings and make dinner!”
She’s a good kid, but I don’t want anything to do with it anymore, at least she’s old enough to work in the palace now and take care of the kids.
The drink lulls me to sleep & I almost hear Mishka’s voice every time I start to rest, I miss you my love.
Genelle
Today’s the day, I finally turn 18 and could barely sleep last night.
What will my wolf look like? I am going to leave and not join the ceremony with others turning 18, I will be able to slip away undetected with everyone being at the ceremony.
I go to the palace and work like any other day, except with the ceremony we have much more work to do with preparing food and decorations in the palace.
Hours later I am sent home to get ready and I start to fill up my bag with extra food and water, what I have hidden from my mother and slowly started to build up rations until I could leave.
Tonight is the night, and I’m finally going to be free.
I hear my mother call for me, I guess she pulled herself together enough to be presentable at the ceremony, I know she misses dad but I needed a mother, not to be a mother in place of her.
I yell down at her, “Go and I’ll meet you there!” Trying to sound as normal as possible, though I’m sure my voice is shaking.
I hear her leave, my siblings are already there and I’ve said goodbye to them earlier, while they were sleeping.
I grab my heavy bag and rush back door and grab the bike I managed to keep hidden from her and start going as fast as I can, “No looking back” I think to myself.
It feels like hours until I’m able to breathe and rest, thinking I’m far enough away now I stop my bike & secure my bike in this town called “Palisade.”
I pull my hoodie up and hope I’m able to just get what I need and continue riding through, I head to what looks like a convenience store & grab some extra water, and protein bars, I’m going to need the fuel for my wolf to shift tonight.
I pay, grab my bike and start to explore the woods to find a place where I can shift undisturbed, I come across a waterfall deep in the woods with a cave behind it & start to unpack my sleeping bag.
Nervously I undress to prepare to shift and feel a shiver run down my spine. I can do this, I think confidentially.
The full moon is starting to come out & I hear it calling to me, I draw my wolf out and my bones begin to c***k and shift as I scream out into nothingness, the pain of my body twisting and contorting into my wolf almost too much to bear and finally it comes to an end.
I open my eyes to see my new wolf and hear her call to me
“I’ve been waiting for you Genelle, we have an amazing future together.”
I jump at the sound of her voice and reply “how can I hear you?”
She laughs mischievously and says “I am your wolf, we are one now, my name is Mila. Go to the waterfall and look at us.”
I run to the waterfall, this feels so exhilarating and free. I look in the reflection to see I am a huge wolf with hues of golden yellow and reds, this is who I was meant to be.
I run through the water eagerly and between the forest and the trees, until it’s time to rest and I start to head back to the waterfall.
How do I shift back? I come into the cave again and slowly start willing my wolf to go, until I feel my bones cracking and breaking again, shifting back feels more painful than shifting into my wolf for the first time.
“It gets easier” Mila says.
I get dressed quickly as it’s cold in the cave without my wolf form, and immediately feel exhausted from the day but ready for the new adventures.
I drift off to sleep and start to dream of the places I’ll see.
